Measurement of mental processes is the bedrock of cognitive psychology, but the interpretation of such measurements is profoundly undermined by evidence that many mental processes are changed by (are reactive to) the act of being observed and measured. The current article is concerned with one particular type of reactivity, namely changes in memory performance when individuals are asked to concurrently monitor their learning via judgments of learning (JOLs). One explanation for memory reactivity is that the requirement to engage in metamemory monitoring changes learners’ goals, shifting them towards greater prioritization of mastering easy items and de-prioritization of memorizing difficult ones. This hypothesis is tested in 5 experiments (2 of which were pre-registered), which varied item difficulty by contrasting related (e.g., – ) and unrelated (e.g., – ) word pairs. While the experiments find robust evidence that recall is affected by the requirement to make immediate JOLs (reactivity), two key predictions of the goal-change account are not supported. The observed findings suggest that a change in the learner’s goal is not the main mechanism underlying JOL reactivity. Alternative explanations for why memory is reactive to metamemory judgments are discussed.

中文翻译：

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学习目标的改变是否可以解释为什么元记忆判断会反应性地影响记忆？

心理过程的测量是认知心理学的基石，但许多心理过程因被观察和测量的行为而改变（对其做出反应）的证据极大地破坏了对这种测量的解释。当前的文章关注一种特定类型的反应，即当个体被要求通过学习判断（JOL）同时监控他们的学习时记忆表现的变化。对记忆反应性的一种解释是，参与元记忆监控的要求改变了学习者的目标，使他们更加优先考虑掌握简单的项目，而不优先考虑记忆困难的项目。该假设通过 5 个实验（其中 2 个是预先注册的）进行了测试，这些实验通过对比相关（例如 – ）和不相关（例如 – ）单词对来改变项目难度。虽然实验发现强有力的证据表明召回受到立即 JOL（反应性）要求的影响，但目标改变帐户的两个关键预测不受支持。观察到的结果表明，学习者目标的改变并不是 JOL 反应性的主要机制。讨论了为什么记忆对元记忆判断有反应的其他解释。